The Australian team returned home from 2006 World Titles with some great results. The event was held at New Pier in Durban from July 1-9. Conditions ranged from 2 – 4 ft over the 10 day event, constantly changing and testing competitors surfing ability.

The event included 87 waveski surfers from Australia, France (including Guadeloupe and - Reunion Island), Israel, United Kingdom ( England, Ireland, Scotland) Ireland, New Zealand and South Africa, who surfed in eight different age/ gender categories. A ladies and mens tag team event was also held.

Neil Decker from the Gold Coast defended his world title in style. After battling through the reperchage rounds to make the Open final, Neil narrowly missed out on winning a third world title by 0.003 of a point and came second to Mathieu Babarit from France. Neil also competed in the Masters division and brought home the World Masters title.

Blair Moore from Wollongong was also one of the Open finalists and in a very close heat finished fourth. Blair was also in the seniors final and finished fourth in this division as well. Kevin Marshall from Wollongong finished third in the veterans division. The Australian mens tag team came second bringing home the silver medal. Jackie Dillon formed an International team with Tracey Sassan (from South Africa) in the Ladies tag team event and came second.

The World titles included a series of events prior to the competition in Capetown, Jeffrey’s Bay, Nahoon Reef and finished with the world title event in Durban. The Cape Town event was held at Melkbosstrand in solid 3 – 6 foot beach break conditions where Neil finished second. The Jeffreys Bay event was in perfect 3- 5 feet offshore conditions at Magna Tubes and Neil finished 5th and Blair finished 10th. The Nahoon Reef event was held in perfect 5-8 feet offshore conditions and Damien Jones from Tasmania finished 8 th.

For complete results and more information on the event go the the South African Waveski Website. There are also hundreds of photos from all four events on capeshots.com.